Camping

...

A Note to My Inner Critic

That's it.  I need you to pack your shit and get out.  Out of my head.  Out of my domain. Just out. I am tired of you telling me that I am not good enough. I am tired of you degrading and demeaning me and my self worth.  I am funny.  I am clever.  and most of all, I do have something to say. *** Contains strong language*** Oh I know how you operate now.  You let me get an idea in my head.  You allow me...

March 2016 Goals

Writing Goals 11 posts for the homeschool blog 5 posts for the travel blog Homeschool Math: Finish current unit and test  Reading: Finish 10 lessons with extra practice in between Social Studies: Studying South America this month. I also signed the kids up for Little Passports (http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?B=789372&U=518790&M=32333&urllink=) and I expect the package for that to come in sometime mid-month. Literature: We're...

February 2016 Progress Report

Monthly Report for February 2016 Travel Agent Biz No sales but my client who booked last month paid for her trip in full.  I also had another couple of clients pay in full.  There's a discrepancy with one of my paid-in-full client's file.  Our booking company says it's not paid and the vendor says it is. Blogging 5 posts on homeschool blog - needed 10. 0 posts on the travel blog.  I needed 10.  I have tons written.....

January 2016 Monthly Progress

I'm gonna see how this works...

Monthly Report for January 2016

Travel Agent Biz
Made 1 sale this month.  Not what I'd like 6 months in but I'm hoping that momentum will start.  Goal for next month is 2 sales.

Blogging
6 posts on homeschool blog - needed 10.
0 posts on the travel blog.  I needed 10.  Why am I avoiding it?
2 posts on personal blog.  Much improved.  I need to use this to channel some of my thoughts.

Homeschooling
Pretty successful this month.  We started the new reading curriculum and little girl really likes it.

Personal
We stayed on budget but everything is very tight.  Got our taxes done and electronically filed.  Plans are to pay off debts and that will relieve a LOT of stress.

One of those days

It hasn't been a bad day. I got some stuff done. Kids are fine. No one is crying. But I feel it creeping up on me.

Slowly, like a predator creeping up on prey. Like a slithering creature slipping up behind me, an anaconda about to crush me in it's grip.

I'm not talking about a real creature. It's all in my head. But it's there. The elephant in the room. Oh so many metaphors for depression and anxiety.

 I got sick December 12 with the flu. For 10 days, I had the flu but it wasn't THAT bad. 

Fever, body aches, headache, sneezing, coughing, oh my God the coughing.

On December 22, I felt a lot better. The fever was gone. The coughing was subsiding. I had slight pressure in my sinuses and ears but I figured that would resolve itself in a couple of days. And then it didn't.

On December 23, I was awakened with an earache. A very bad earache in my right ear. After 12 hours, my ear "popped" and then it was completely stuffed up. I went to Urgent Care, got a course of antibiotics to deal with the double ear infection, upper respiratory infection, and a "little" pneumonia. 

Later that night, the left ear started up and did a similar thing, but this time, my ENT thinks that when it "popped" at 3am, that it actually ruptured.

I lost most of my hearing then and Christmas was horrible. I couldn't sleep because the tinnitus in my ears was so bad. I couldn't hear what people said to me so I mostly remained silent. I went to see the new Star Wars movie but didn't enjoy it because I couldn't hear it and didn't know what was going on.
My hearing is getting better. My ENT is pleased that the infection in my right ear is nearly gone and is mostly gone in my left ear. My hearing is still impaired in my left however due to some "debris" on my ear drum as a result of all the yuckiness. 

It should improve and we're watching but still.. just ugh.

Bad things happen when I retreat into my head. I get paranoid. I turn into a hypochondriac too.

Things are getting better with my ear but I'm still in my head.

Money is tight with all the doctor visits and medicines. Then I went for a follow up with my gastro doc and she changed my medicine so there's more expense I wasn't planning for.

There's just a lot of stress right now and I'm wigging out and feeling out of control.

 I know things will get better soon. I just have to hang on.

How I organize a year's worth of homeschool lesson plans

I wanted to show you how we are planning our next homeschool year.

This is my homeschool file cabinet showing you folders labeled 1-180, folders for each of the months (placed roughly where I think they'll hit) and a few resource folders at the back.

We have co-op days, Girl Scout days, and other appointments and interruptions.  This way, even if we have to skip a day, we just grab the next folder which contains all the instructions and worksheets for the day and keep on going.

We can get some school work done on days with interruptions but anything that we can't get to goes into the catch up day folder and I'll see if we really need to do the work. Every TEN school days, I have a catch up day. I schedule art for catch up day too and we'll work on a project from Home Art Studio or something else.


I totally stole part of this idea from the blog Meet Penny.  The catch up day was my own invention.

I had a couple of illnesses this past year that totally wrecked my schedule and I got tired of erasing and rewriting my planner so I decided this year to schedule the physical stuff and use my planner for what we actually accomplished each day.  I keep a separate box for books and I still have to put holds on books at the library.  I also need to gather materials together for art and science (although I'm thinking of bagging some of that stuff up to and putting it in the folders) each week, but I'm not digging through workbooks and printing stuff last minute.

A Whole New World



I jumped before I meant to.

Last time I posted, I was talking about how I was going to finish my training, get my certificate, and then start looking for a host agency.  Well the host agency found me.  Sort of.

Like most people of faith, I pray a lot for direction and/or validation.  One morning, I was praying for validation for my chosen career path and a few minutes later, I got it.  One of the host agencies on my short list of agencies announced that they were looking for a few new agents and that anyone interested should send an email for more information. When I saw it, I felt like I HAD to send an email.  Within 24 hours, I was an independent agent for World of Magic Travel.  Just like that, everything changed directions and instead doing all this some time in the next few weeks, it was here now.

Within a few more days, I was completing my Disney travel agent certification and poof, I'm in business.

You can find my business website here: www.navigatingthemagic.com and my Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/navigatingthemagic

Checking in...

Summer is here and I'm in the middle of a whole lot of stuff.

First, I'm finishing up my travel agent course.  I have three units left before I take my TAP (Travel Agent Proficiency) exam: Cruises and Rails and Cars, Computers and Travel (should be easy), and Computer Reservation Systems.

Second, the kids have ONE day of school left. We're not gonna get it done today because I don't feel well and I had a doc appointment this morning but tomorrow for sure.

Third, the doctor appointment was a follow-up visit.  Back in February, I was having some severe stomach pain.  Turns out the anti-inflammatory meds I take for my neck was irritating my stomach.  The meds, combined with a hiatal hernia, led to some pretty nasty gastritis.  I'm much better, but I'm not well.  I can't eat citrus fruit at all (which are my favorites), salsa is a big no-no, and I have to put a lot of milk in my coffee to offset the acid.

Next, even though I haven't finished my travel agent course, I've already started my business.  I joined World of Magic Travel a few days ago as an independent travel agent and I'm training there for the various vendors and suppliers.

Lastly, we finished up our second year of Girl Scouts last month but there's planning to be done for next year.

Back to School

Every now and again, I’ve gotten the urge to start a business.  I’ve played around it.  I’ve even written about it, but I haven’t done anything about it.  I think that it’s time for that to change. So a few months ago, I decided to go back to school to learn how to be a travel agent.  Yeah, I didn’t expect that either. I need to work.  I need to keep busy. I need direction. If I can do all that and have a good time, then...